Bank Vostok starts accepting applications under Affordable Loans at 5-9% program for small businesses
KYIV. Feb 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Bank Vostok has begun accepting applications for lending to micro and small enterprises under the government program Affordable Loans at 5-7-9%, the financial institution’s website reports.
“Bank Vostok develops support for entrepreneurship and begins accepting applications for lending to micro and small businesses within the framework of the state program Affordable Loans at 5-7-9%, introduced at the initiative of the president and the prime minister of Ukraine,” the statement said.
As reported, four state-owned banks, including PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank, have signed agreements with the Entrepreneurship Development Fund to participate in the implementation of the Affordable Loans at 5-7-9% program.
Under the state program, entrepreneurs will be able to obtain loans for business development for up to five years in the amount of up to UAH 1.5 million, while the state will compensate entrepreneurs for part of interest on the loan.
The provision of three possible rates of 5%, 7% or 9% for loans will depend on the size of the business and the duration of its activities. Additionally, the lending rate will be reduced by 0.5% per annum for each employee, but not less than to 5% per annum.
The National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) at a meeting on February 4 approved an increase in tariffs for centralized water supply and sewerage services for 43 enterprises by an average of 20%. According to information on the regulator’s website, in accordance with the applications of enterprises, a decision was made to increase tariffs for centralized water supply by an average of 21%, tariffs for centralized sewerage by 23%.
Thus, the water supply tariff of Kyivvodokanal will rise by 13.59%, from UAH 9.86 per cubic meter to UAH 11.2. The tariff for sewerage will increase by 6.28%, from UAH 7.49 per cubic meter to UAH 7.96.
According to the materials on the NCER’s website, enterprises argued the need to increase the tariffs by raising employees’ wages, higher prices for fuels and lubricants, reagents and electricity.
Some 2,473 business and premium class apartments for a total of $419 million were sold in the primary market of Kyiv in 2019, while new De Luxe class objects are expected to enter the highest price segment of the market in 2020, according to a review by Kiev Standard. “In 2020, we pin our hopes on the De Luxe segment, which is new for the Kyiv market. According to our data, work is already underway on several projects in this class among the leading developers. The projects themselves, due to a lack of a similar supply and competition, will form a new level of demand in the high price segment,” the review says.
As a whole, in 2019 elite apartments with a total area of 217,000 square meters were sold in the capital. Of these, 25,000 square meters (181 apartments) were presented in the premium class, 192,000 square meters (2,292 apartments) in the business class.
According to Kiev Standard’s estimates, the volume of new elite housing supply in 2020 will amount to 4,000 apartments with a total area of 350,000 square meters.
As expected, foreign investors, who were previously not interested in the Ukrainian real estate market, will have a positive impact on the demand indicators in 2020.
“Negative rates on deposits in Western banks will force to consider new options for investments, including the primary real estate market of Kyiv. Unlike local investors, foreign ones are considering long-term investments,” the report says.
According to the report, in 2019 sales in 15 objects started in the market, 13 of which are new projects. The volume of the new offer amounted to 4,780 apartments with 367,900 square meters.
On March 11-12, Smile-Expo will hold a major gambling event – Ukrainian Gaming Week. The exhibition will bring together representatives of Ukrainian and foreign companies offering advanced goods and services for the gambling industry. Participants will include software developers and providers, hardware manufacturers, gambling operators, service and payment system designers, financial and marketing companies, law firms, etc.
The event will feature a conference involving Ukrainian government officials and international experts. Besides, there will be an awarding ceremony for prominent gambling companies according to UGW.
Exhibitors of Ukrainian Gaming Week
100 exhibitors and 2000 attendees are expected to join UGW 2020. Given below are the first companies that will take part in the exhibition:
Slotegrator – a software developer and service provider for the gambling sector. The company provides a wide range of online business solutions such as online casinos, bitcoin and Telegram casinos, fantasy sports and betting software. The aggregator implements turnkey projects, integrates gaming content into online platforms, and builds marketing strategies.
MelBet Affiliates – an affiliate program of MelBet betting shop. It unites 10,000 partners worldwide.
The affiliate program supports 49 languages and accepts traffic from the majority of countries. Affiliates cooperate with each other based on the RevShare pattern. A fee is 40%. Partners obtain earnings using 43 payment methods.
LPB Bank – a Latvian bank offering financial services to corporate and private customers. It supplies high-quality e-commerce services.
Its clients can use an online acquiring service enabling payments in 32 currencies. Bank’s other services: opening of multi-currency settlement accounts and deposits, access to financial markets and exchanges across the globe, issuing of payment cards, loans, etc.
Bracelet Sponsor of UGW
Bracelet Sponsor of Ukrainian Gaming Week is Alpha Affiliates, an affiliate program by a direct advertiser engaged in gambling and betting platform promotion on foreign markets. It has six offers by licensed casinos and betting providers.
Affiliates’ pay-offs are conducted due to the RevShare model. Earnings are transferred using bank remittance, payment systems, and in bitcoins. An admin fee is absent here. The affiliate program has postbacks and detailed statistics with API functions.
UGW Awards
The exhibition will recognize the best industry companies according to Ukrainian Gaming Week. Market experts will determine winners in 12 nominations by closed voting.
The high-profile awarding ceremony will take place on March 11 at the party.
Event organizer
The event is held by Smile-Expo, an international company organizing events dedicated to innovations.
Join UGW 2020 in order to examine cutting-edge gambling solutions and talk to representatives of leading companies face-to-face.
Program and details: ugw.com.ua.
Open4Business.com.ua – news partner of the event.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska have been granted an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis in Vatican City State on Saturday, during which Zelensky invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine in order to see the situation in Donbas, according to the press service of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
During the meeting, the head of state said that the Holy See could play an important role in bringing peace to Ukraine.
“The main thing we talked about is peace. He [Pope Francis] even called me “president of peace” – this is my image in Europe now,” Zelensky said after the audience.
He also noted that His Holiness Pope Francis is very much welcome in Ukraine, where he enjoys extremely high support and trust.
“I invited him to Ukraine. I am sure he will visit Ukraine – not only its capital. I said that one should visit eastern Ukraine in order to fully understand what is going on there,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky and Pope Francis also discussed humanitarian initiatives to help children and protect the environment.
“I am extremely grateful to His Holiness for the “Pope for Ukraine” initiative, which helped 900,000 war-stricken Ukrainians in Donbas,” Zelensky said.
Goldman Sachs predicts the increase in inflation in Ukraine by 4.1% in 2019 and to 5% in 2020, according to the materials of the bank.
The inflation slowing in Ukraine in 2019 has turned out to be more significant than it was projected in the forecasts of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) published in inflation reports within 2019 (6.3% as of late 2019) and assessments of other expert organizations, the regulator has said in comments on inflation on its website.
The macroeconomic situation allows the Ukrainian economy to grow rapidly in the coming several years, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said.
Ukrainian businesses forecast inflation in 12 months at 7%, which is 0.1 percentage point (p.p.) worse than expected a quarter earlier.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has retained its forecast for real GDP growth in Ukraine for 2020-2021 at 3.5% and 4% respectively, expecting that GDP would grow by 4% in 2020.
According to the data of the electronic census, population of Ukraine totals 37.289 million, minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Dmytro Dubilet reported.
Real wages in Ukraine in December 2019 increased by 11.3% compared with December 2018, while compared with November 2019 they increased by 15.1%, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to the data of the electronic census, population of Ukraine totals 37.289 million, minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Dmytro Dubilet reported. “Ukraine amounts 37.289 million people,” Dubilet said at a press conference in Kyiv.
The deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in January-November 2019 increased by 5.7% compared to the same period in 2018 (also $8.869 billion in deficit), to $9.374 billion, the State Statistics Service reported.
Exports of goods from Ukraine during the reporting period increased 6.3%, to $45.963 billion, while imports grew by 6.2%, to $55.337 billion, it said.
The deficit of Ukraine’s state budget for 2019 was UAH 78.05 billion with the ceiling set in the national budget being UAH 91.13 billion, while in 2018 the deficit of the national budget was UAH 59.25 billion with the ceiling of UAH 94.1 billion.
Industrial production in Ukraine in 2019 decreased by 1.8% compared to 2018, while in December 2019 from December 2018 the decline was 7.7%, the State Statistics Service has reported.
The volume of industrial products (goods, services) sold in Ukraine in January-November 2019 amounted to UAH 2.273 trillion, which is 0.5% more than in January-November 2018 (UAH 2.261 trillion), in particular outside the country to UAH 602.8 billion, the State Statistics Service has said.
The deficit of Ukraine’s state budget for 2019 was UAH 78.05 billion with the ceiling set in the national budget being UAH 91.13 billion, while in 2018 the deficit of the national budget was UAH 59.25 billion with the ceiling of UAH 94.1 billion.
